Nutritional contribution of street foods to the diet of people in developing countries: a systematic review

Abstract

Objective: To review studies examining the nutritional value of street foods and their contribution to the diet of consumers in developing countries. Design: The electronic databases PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Proquest Health and Science Direct were searched for articles on street foods in developing countries that included findings on nutritional value. Results: From a total of 639 articles, twenty-three studies were retained since they met the inclusion criteria. In summary, daily energy intake from street foods in adults ranged from 13 % to 50 % of energy and in children from 13 % to 40 % of energy. Although the amounts differed from place to place, even at the lowest values of the percentage of energy intake range, energy from street foods made a significant contribution to the diet. Furthermore, the majority of studies suggest that street foods contributed significantly to the daily intake of protein, often at 50 % of the RDA. The data on fat and carbohydrate intakes are of some concern because of the assumed high contribution of street foods to the total intakes of fat, trans-fat, salt and sugar in numerous studies and their possible role in the development of obesity and non-communicable diseases. Few studies have provided data on the intake of micronutrients, but these tended to be high for Fe and vitamin A while low for Ca and thiamin. Conclusions: Street foods make a significant contribution to energy and protein intakes of people in developing countries and their use should be encouraged if they are healthy traditional foods.

Low dietary diversity and micronutrient adequacy among lactating women in a peri-urban area of Nepal

“…Another urban food practice was snacking (consumption between meals), which was practised by 76 % of the women and contributed to 4 % of the energy intake. The most frequent snacks were ready-made samosa, doughnuts and different types of local baked goods (sel, bom, puri, momo and nimki), most of which had a high content of fat and sugar (43) . The lactating women in the present study represented a relatively well-off Nepali peri-urban population; nevertheless, their level of micronutrient inadequacy was high and this was partly due to a low dietary diversity.…”

Total Phenol Content and Antioxidant Activity of Okra Seeds from Different Genotypes

“…In addition, during defatting, phenolic fatty acids like those rich in linoleic acid are lost. Oil obtained from okra seeds consist mainly of linoleic acid [12,13,23]. This explains the loss in the total phenol content of the defatted samples since some of the fatty acids removed during defatting contained some phenols.…”

“…They can be used for oil production or as a substitute for non-caffeinated coffee/tea. The oil obtained from okra seeds is rich in palmitic, oleic and linoleic acids [12,13]. The seed powder is also used as an aluminium salt substitute in water purification [14].…”

Functional properties of Okra Abelmoschus esculentus L. (Moench): traditional claims and scientific evidences

“…It is rich in essential amino acids, has trypsin activity and chemical score of 67 (Rao, 1985). Okra seed oil is rich in palmitic, oleic, and linoleic acids (Crossley & Hilditch, 1951;Chisholm, & Hopkins, 1957;Steyn et al, 2014). The value of palmitic acid in A. esculentus was in the range of 10.3%-36.35%, where as values of linoleic acid was from 23.6 to 50.65% (Jarret, Wang, & Levy, 2011).…”